This is a jumble of verses from other lyrics including "Arthur's Seat shall be my Bed" (1701), "The Distressed Virgin" (1633) and the Scottish scandal ballad "Jamie Douglas" (1776).
Andrew Lang found a variant verse in Ramsay's "Tea Table Miscellany" from a 16th-century song.
[5] Predecessors of "The Water Is Wide" also influenced lyrics for other folk and popular songs, such as the modern version of the Irish "Carrickfergus" (1960s) and the American "Sweet Peggy Gordan" (1880).
The Irish folk song "Carrickfergus" shares the lines "but the sea is wide/I cannot swim over/And neither have I wings to fly".
However, the content of the English-language "Carrickfergus" includes material clearly from the Scots/English songs not in any known copy of A Bhí Bean Uasal suggesting considerable interplay among all known traditions.
The song "Van Diemen's Land" on the album Rattle and Hum by U2 uses a variation of the melody of "The Water Is Wide".
[7] The song "When the Pipers Play", sung by Isla St. Clair on the video of the same name, uses the melody of "The Water Is Wide".
Neil Young's "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)" uses the melody of "The Water Is Wide".
[9][10] It is also the tune for John Bell's "When God Almighty came to Earth" (1987)[11] and F. Pratt Green's "An Upper Room did our Lord Prepare" (1974).
Esther re-released the song on the box-set CD Mein Weg zu mir in 1999.